A look at the history and beliefs behind Japan’s controversial shrine to the war dead

Emperor Meiji first visited the site that would become one of Japan’s most controversial shrines in 1874. He vowed that the names of those who died for their country would live there forever.

More than 2.4 million people are now honored at Yasukuni, a memorial and Shinto shrine in central Tokyo . Among them are 14 war criminals who are also commemorated each Aug. 15, when Japan’s surrender ended World War II.

The shrine provides spiritual comfort for some who mourn relatives and others who visit to express gratitude. Yet for Asian countries that endured Japanese imperial rule and expansion, Yasukuni remains a symbol of Japan’s militarism .

Visits by Japanese leaders frequently draw criticism from China and South Korea , which see them as a sign of insufficient remorse for Japan’s wartime aggression.

Here’s a look at the history and religious background of a shrine that is both a sacred place of remembrance and a source of controversy.

Imperial rule was restored in Japan in the 19th century after the fall of a military government that ruled for more than 250 years. A year into the new imperial era, in 1869, Emperor Meiji ordered the construction of the shrine that would later be renamed Yasukuni.

The name derives from two Japanese characters that can be translated as “peaceful country,” and its purpose was to honor those who fell defending the imperial cause.

“Yasukuni Shrine was initially conceived as a way to send a message to the Japanese people,” said Akiko Takenaka, a professor of history at the University of Kentucky. “The message was about the emperor; the message was about a new Japan.”

In that Japan, Takenaka added, Meiji became the one who could bestow the highest honor on those who died fighting for the empire and men were expected to consider it an honor to sacrifice their lives for him.

Japan’s emperors have long been regarded as descendants of the sun goddess Amaterasu under Shinto beliefs . However, the notion of the emperor’s divine origins strengthened during the Meiji era, when the concept of State Shinto arose.

On one hand, that meant the government exercised control over the shrine’s practices and finances. Beyond that, the line between patriotism and religion blurred.

“The Meiji reformers believed that they were establishing an ideal nation in which the people and the sacred emperor maintained a spiritual union,” wrote Susumu Shimazono, a scholar specializing in religion and modern Japan, in the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies.

The separation of religion and state came after Japan’s surrender in WWII.

In December 1945, U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur issued an order that abolished State Shinto. The measure effectively cut off government funding for shrines and removed Shinto practices and teachings from public institutions.

Yasukuni subsequently became a private religious corporation. Official visits have raised questions about the constitutional separation of religion and government.

Yasukuni is not a cemetery. Rather than bodies or graves, those remembered there are enshrined as “kami” — divinities or sacred spirits in the Shinto tradition.

They include soldiers, women who provided battlefield relief, students mobilized to support wartime production, and foreign nationals who died while serving Japan.

Yasukuni’s most controversial kami are 14 Class-A war criminals, a designation applied to Japanese leaders accused of “crimes against peace” by planning and waging the war. Among them is wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo , one of the masterminds behind the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Their enshrinement was carried out in secret by Yasukuni’s head priest in 1978, three years after Hirohito last prayed at the shrine.

“Emperor Hirohito did not go again after he found out,” said Mark R. Mullins, professor of Japanese and religious studies at the University of Auckland. “He didn’t want to get caught up in criticism surrounding that.”

Hirohito’s successors have sent emissaries to Yasukuni for its key annual rites, but neither has visited the shrine in person as emperor.

Other controversial enshrinements include Buddhists, Christians, Koreans and Taiwanese whose families say they were included without their consent, Mullins said.

Some have taken legal action, but Japanese courts have rejected efforts to have relatives removed from the shrine.

“For some of those in the bereaved families’ association, the focus may be on the personal grief,” Mullins said. “But for those who are keen to restore what they feel was lost by the loss of the war and the foreign occupation, it means something more.”

Adjacent to the shrine is the Yushukan Museum, which displays wartime artifacts. Scholars have underscored how its account of Japan’s military history leaves out the experiences of China and Korea under Japanese imperialism.

“By eliminating the enemy, the Yushukan remembers a war that was only ever glorious,” wrote John Breen, a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, in a paper called “Yasukuni Shrine: Ritual and Memory.”

Some visitors say paying respects at Yasukuni carries a spiritual meaning that should not be equated with endorsing war.

Kana Shindo, a member of Tokyo’s Minato City Assembly, said she regards the shrine as a place where she purifies her mind, gives thanks to the kami and reflects on herself.

“I have absolutely no intention of glorifying war,” said Shindo, who added that politicians also have freedom of religion and conscience. “I visit because I believe that the peaceful Japan in which we live today exists upon the lives and accumulated history of the people who lived before us.”

Before leaving for war, Japanese soldiers were told that if they died, they would be enshrined at Yasukuni.

“They told their families: ‘I want you to come see me at Yasukuni Shrine,’” said Toshiei Mizuochi, president of the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association.

His father, who served in the Japanese navy, was killed in a bombing six days before the end of the war, on Aug. 9, 1945.

More than 2.4 million Japanese soldiers died overseas during WWII. The remains of approximately 1 million have yet to be recovered .

“For that reason, the vast majority of bereaved families who received neither remains nor personal belongings believe that the spirits of the war dead are at Yasukuni Shrine,” Mizuochi said.

Relatives like him visit Yasukuni beyond Aug. 15. They attend major ceremonies, commemorate death anniversaries and report family milestones — entering school, starting a job, getting married or having a child.

“I visit Yasukuni Shrine more times than I can count in a year,” Mizuochi said. “Every time I put my hands together in prayer, the face of my father in his portrait naturally comes to mind.”

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